


Meeting Phep

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Destiny 2 [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Destiny 2, a few light spoilers for the beginning of the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: Lox finds a Titan and slowly learns what Mava-2 has to deal with.





	Meeting Phep

She’d never seen a dead Guardian before.

Oh, sure, she’d seen plenty of them _die_ ; she’d died innumerable times herself. But she’d never seen… _this_. The carnage that lay before her. Guardians who had died, been slaughtered where they stood, and would never be coming back.

Hunters, Warlocks, Titans – there were a few from each class. Some looked like they’d gone down fighting, some looked like they’d gone down fast. Exhausted from the loss of their Light and their flight from the rubble of the City she’d left behind herself, they had stood no chance.

Monday gently nudged her thoughts, providing what little comfort he could. He spent most of his time quiet and resting in his place in the back of her mind. He hadn’t taken a physical form since he’d found her nearly dead in her crater of rubble. She still didn’t know how she’d survived at all, but Monday had managed to find her and healed her as best he could. She hurt, but nothing was broken now and she could move.

A fist clenched as she thought about the City, the Tower, the deaths. She hated the Cabal for what they’d done. She wanted to hunt them down, slaughter them as they’d slaughtered these Guardians, the civilians, but she was afraid. Or, Monday was afraid and that made her afraid. Monday didn’t get scared. Nervous? Sure. But she’d never seen him terrified. Never felt genuine fear from her ghost.

So they ran.

They ran and they hid and they left the City behind. She didn’t know where they were going, but it didn’t seem to matter. They were going away and they would figure it out later. She thought after four days they would have been out of range of the Cabal patrols but she was apparently wrong. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

The snarling of Cabal hounds echoed from over the little ridge ahead of her followed by a wordless scream of challenge that sounded distinctly human. Without thinking, she hurried to the top of the ridge. Civilian or Guardian, she didn’t care at this point. She just wanted to know someone else was still alive.

It might have been a Titan. Or a child in parts of a Titan’s armor, she wasn’t sure, but the way they seemed happy to bludgeon the enemies around them made her think definitely probably a Titan. Three of the hounds leapt at the Titan’s left side only to be smacked out of the air with the butt of a sniper rifle.

“ _Fuck off!_ ”

More hounds and a legionnaire were coming up on the Titan and Lox hopped down the small ridge, drawing her own sniper rifle as she went. Miraculously, it had survived the fall and she had a few rounds left in it. She dropped the legionnaire and a couple of the hounds as the Titan beat the rest into the dirt, kicking one before she straightened up and pushed a mess of multi-colored hair from her eyes.

“Nice timing, Hunter.”

Lox nodded briefly as she took in the appearance of the strange Titan before her. She was a tiny Awoken – a _generous_ estimate would put her at 5 feet – with a choppy mess of red and purple hair streaked with dirt and grime. She either didn’t notice or care about the dirt everywhere. Her armor was a baffling mix of Vanguard-issued gear, mangled Cabal plating, and – Lox was pretty sure – bits of Hive exoskeleton.

The Awoken seemed to be looking Lox over as the Hunter did the same.

“You look like shit.”

Lox blinked. “Hello to you too.”

“Hello,” the Awoken said. “Does that armor even do anything now? Like, seriously, you might as well be wearing pajamas.”

Any questions Lox might’ve had were immediately replaced by incredulity. It was the veritable end of the world and she was in an argument over clothes. “Well _sorry_ I haven’t had time to shop around for a new outfit.”

The Titan dropped her shoulders and rolled her eyes, a gesture Lox scowled at, and set off back toward the ridge Lox had dropped down.

“Where are you going?”

“To get you some new pants, since you’re apparently blind.”

Lox watched her climb up the ridge and reach the top before she slowly followed. She poked a question at Monday and he gave back a shrug.

“Do you have a name?”

“Phep.” The Titan didn’t turn look at Lox or bother asking her name in return. As Lox crested the top of the ridge, she saw Phep push a crate out of the way and peer at something behind it. She glanced up at Lox and back down at whatever she’d found.

“She looks about your size. And has actual functional armor. There you go. Shopping done.”

Lox finally saw the dead Hunter who had been behind the crate. She did look about the same size and Lox realized that could have easily been her lying dead somewhere.

“I’m not looting the dead.”

Phep looked entirely uncomprehending. “Why?”

“Because it’s… not right.”

“I’m pretty sure you can bend the rules of “morality” or whatever when the _literal goddamn apocalypse_ is happening. It’s not like she’s using them! You need armor, she doesn’t, I don’t see what the problem is.”

_She… has a point…_

Lox scowled and mentally shushed her ghost before asking, “Do you have a fireteam?”

“Nope.”

“How long have you been a Guardian?”

Phep started counting on her fingers. “Uhhhhh…. about fiiiiiiive… days.”

Lox pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. Not even a week.

“Look. Do whatever you want with this _completely free_ and _really nice_ set of armor, but don’t expect me to carry you when someone shoots your legs off.”

Lox gave her a flat stare and Phep shrugged and then straightened up as she seemed to see something.

“Now _that_ is a nice helmet.” She jogged off to another area of the destroyed camp, apparently in the market for a helmet.

Lox looked back down at the dead Hunter and sighed again. Company would be better than being alone, but this was going to be a long journey.


End file.
